I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 502

Sometimes I had thoughts like this: Wouldn’t it be easier if I just carried a club around instead of a sword?

While technique was essential for a sword, a club could solve most situations purely through brute force.

To fully accommodate my ridiculously high weight class and strength, there was no weapon better than a club—that is, a blunt weapon.

However, considering the Sword of the Heavenly Demon and everything from Sword Matstar, I owed far too much gratitude to my benefactors to simply ignore swordplay.

That was why I trained diligently in swordsmanship every day, occasionally getting advice from Sword Matstar.

It felt a bit awkward to say this out loud, but when it came to swordsmanship—specifically pure technique—Sword Matstar was actually a step above the Heavenly Demon.

To put it roughly: because the Heavenly Demon walked a smooth, pre-paved path of legendary genius, her explanations were complex and obscure. They were filled with poetic metaphors.

On the other hand, Sword Matstar had climbed up from the absolute bottom, carrying the thick smell of dirt and hard toil.

Whenever I got stuck somewhere? She would ponder for a moment and then break it down in a solid, practical manner.

Furthermore, with Ludwig and Cain by my side as well, I was able to make a decent amount of progress.

Emphasis on decent.

Chwaak!

The reality was that if I put too much power into it, I couldn’t even cut a single sheet of paper cleanly.

I tried slicing a piece of paper—not with the Sword of the Heavenly Demon or a Mythricon sword, but with an ordinary one.

However, far from being sliced cleanly, the paper was practically shredded into pulverization.

It wasn’t a neat straight line, but torn apart like a grand canyon. That meant too much physical force had leaked in.

"Tsk..."

I scratched my head. The reason I was trying to cut paper instead of logs was simple.

When I asked experienced swordsmen, they told me paper-slicing was an effective training exercise for everyone from beginners to masters.

A sword was fundamentally a tool designed for ’slashing.’ It was night and day compared to the blunt impact of a club.

[It appears your raw physical power has become too immense, making fine control difficult.]

"I think so too."

Watching from the side, Cain and Ludwig chimed in with a few remarks.

They weren’t teasing me; their voices were serious as they observed my current condition.

They said technique isn’t supposed to be bound by raw strength, but fine physical intuition and sensitivity are crucial.

The problem was that with every passing day, my intuition was thrown completely out of whack.

’My growth speed is just way too absurdly fast.’

Just a few days ago, I could slice paper without an issue. But today, I failed again.

I had swung with the exact same feel as before, yet inexplicably, it wouldn’t cut properly.

No Unity of Self and Object, no Aura, no Mana—just pure physical technique and sense. This was proving to be incredibly tricky.

[Cutting with the strength of a child versus cutting with the strength of an adult are vastly different things. Naturally, it exerts a massive influence on one’s technique.]

"What do you mean by that?"

[I mean your rate of growth is equivalent to a child rapidly ballooning into an adult overnight.]

"Mmm..."

Cain’s analogy was spot on. After fighting the Colossus and mastering Unity of Self and Object, my overall capabilities had grown exponentially.

The issue was whether that sudden leap had impacted my External Arts, leaving a flaw in my swordsmanship.

Fortunately, it wasn’t that I had completely lost control of my physical strength. It was just that my overwhelming force was interfering with my refined technique.

[Back in my era, training started around seven or eight years old. What about you, Ludwig?]

"It is similar even today. Cain-nim, in your era, did that early training include swordsmanship?"

[Of course.]

"Things are different now. We focus primarily on physical fundamentals and Mana Cultivation Methods, and only begin teaching swordsmanship around age fifteen. Until then, physical body growth takes priority."

I had heard about this before. As eras passed and science advanced, training methods had also become far more systematic.

The age Cain lived in was a survival-of-the-fittest era, closer to what people called Spartan training.

Now, however, scientific methods were integrated. During growth periods, trainees focused solely on bodily development, introducing refined techniques only afterward.

Most people have probably experienced something similar—gaining over 10cm in height during middle or high school.

I went through something like that back then too, suffering crazy growth pains.

"Grylls is experiencing something similar. Because his realm rose so steeply in a short period, his physical intuition shifted completely, causing him to struggle."

[How long will it take to fix?]

"To be honest, if his realm rises yet again, that will present another problem in itself... Even his body is gradually changing, making it extremely difficult to teach him proper technique. He is almost like an Orc."

"Did you just call a human an Orc?"

I asked in disbelief, but Ludwig remained dead serious as he spoke.

"An Orc reaches adulthood at five years old. Your growth rate is even more extreme than that."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"It is not necessarily bad. Growth inevitably stops at some point. If it finishes early so you can focus entirely on technique, it will be fine."

Except your growth doesn’t seem to stop.

That unspoken implication struck deep into my chest.

I felt like pouting out of frustration, but since it was a hard fact, I had no comeback.

Indeed, my growth rate was so steep that anyone else would be struck with utter shock.

It had only been half a year. Well, I had survived for nearly half a year.

Even considering the Forest of the Four Seasons, a guy who had zero prior acquaintance with mana had reached the realm of Unity of Self and Object in just six months?

’Was her name Ash? Sword Matstar would probably be insanely intrigued.’

The person whose situation was closest to mine was Sword Master Ash.

According to Ludwig, she had a constitution where mana accumulated simply by breathing.

Yet unlike me, Ash hadn’t experienced a sudden ’hyper-growth’ phenomenon. Even if her steps were wide, she still climbed the staircase step by step.

Title) Anyone else like me?

Wild Grylls

(Video of slicing paper with a sword, but it tears instead of cutting clean)

(Photo of Wonmo looking gloomy because his friend is gone)

Practicing swordsmanship and it happened again. Ever since I reached Unity of Self and Object, my physical intuition feels off.

I can control my force, but when I try to swing with my old feeling, something feels slightly misaligned? Anyway, yeah.

If anyone’s been through something similar, can you give me some advice? I was going to ask a specific fixed handle user directly, but decided to just post it.

ㄴHeavenly Demon) Such occurrences are not entirely unheard of. Do not act hastily; it is vital that you slowly recover your physical intuition step by step.Read the latest chapters at novelping . com.

ㄴSword Matstar) I’ve never experienced that so I’m not quite sure, but since Grylls-nim is a fellow genius like me, I’m sure you’ll regain your sense in no time!

ㄴDon’t Abandon the Hero) Please don’t worry too much! I’m sure everything will work out fine!

ㄴHey dummies, give him actual advice instead of just cheering him on, lololol

ㄴThose guys are definitely thinking "Wait, it just came naturally to me though?" so they can’t even think of advice to give, lololol

ㄴAh, lol! "It just worked for me, bro!" lol

ㄴPrincess Chaenggu) There are lots of sports players who experience that! Their balance gets completely thrown off because of a sudden growth spurt!

ㄴKing Reor) There are plenty of cases where short players suddenly grew tall and their dribbling went down the drain. Hang in there.

ㄴPrincess Chaenggu) Are you talking about Mato by any chance?

ㄴKing Reor) No? I’m talking about Anuja?

ㄴWhat are they talking about?

ㄴPlayers from Team Chaeyu and Team Reor respectively. They used to dribble crazy good, but after their growth spurts, they completely flopped.

ㄴNo wonder they say lovers grow alike, they even share niche sports trivia lol

ㄴPrincess Chaenggu) Shut up!

ㄴKing Reor) Shut up.

ㄴLook at that. Even their reactions are identical.

ㄴFR lololol

ㄴStarlight Lady) But why is our Wonmo acting like that? I feel like that’s the most important thing here?

ㄴWild Grylls) He’s been like that ever since Tyranno left yesterday. Even when I try to comfort him, he’s just super down.

ㄴWhat are you doing? Go bring Tyranno back!

ㄴIf our Gallery Master gets depression, are you gonna take responsibility?

ㄴWild Grylls) Of course I have to take responsibility. I’m his owner.

ㄴHmm. Respectable.

ㄴWild Grylls) Thanks.

ㄴDamn, so cool about it lololololol

ㄴlololololol

ㄴlolololol

ㄴHonestly, it’d be weirder if there were more people like you in the world.

ㄴWild Grylls) WTF;;

ㄴWow, harsh words for real lololol

ㄴNow that’s a wise answer to a stupid question lololol

ㄴDivine Herald my ass, he’s just a straight-up mutant lololol

ㄴDon’t Abandon the Hero) Stop committing blasphemy!!

It wasn’t particularly helpful. The general consensus was just that practicing until I recovered my intuition was the best way forward.

Since solidifying the basics was always beneficial, I couldn’t just ignore it either.

In the end, all I could do was work hard until I regained my physical sense.

I thought the day would pass peacefully like this, but...

"Jjaek! Jjaek! Jjaek!"

"Jjaaaek!"

With Tyranno gone, I ran into unexpected problems. Namely, an invasion by a sparrow army.

Every single time I tried to harvest crops, they swarmed down, causing no end of headaches.

Of course, if I just pushed through with brute force, I could harvest them somehow. Those sparrows weren’t terrifying to me anymore.

The sheer annoyance was the main issue. Every time I went to harvest, they rushed me like crazy, making my blood boil.

"Lackey. Didn’t you say I’m an apex predator now?"

"Correct."

"Then what the hell are those bird bastards doing?"

"Sparrows have low intelligence. It is common for them to think that they specifically won’t get caught."

"..."

A form of selfishness naturally blending into the collective herd mentality, huh?

Surprisingly, that line of thinking was common in human society as well.

You’d often see people mess things up with a careless ’Eh, it won’t kill me’ mindset.

For sparrows with even lower intelligence, it went without saying. The intelligence buff unique to the Forest of the Four Seasons probably didn’t help much here.

’I miss Tyranno already.’

Looking at the crop yield that had noticeably diminished compared to before, I couldn’t hide my gloominess.

Still, I had to get used to this. In the future, all sorts of minor creatures might bother us.

For now, solving the sparrow issue was priority one, as they directly harmed our food supply.

"Should we build a scarecrow?"

"They will figure it out eventually."

"Not if we smear the scarecrow with the blood and flesh of sparrow bastards."

"..."

Lackey looked at me with his eyes wide open.

It wasn’t his usual ’staring at a wild beast’ look, but a look of genuine realization that it was brilliant.

I felt a surge of pride for a split second, until his next words made me burst into a dry laugh.

"Even I did not think of that. I forgot for a moment that Master is a human."

"What on earth do you usually think of me as?"

"Leader of the pack."

I couldn’t tell whether he was sincerely complimenting me or subtly dissing me as a beast.

Either way, fast judgment meant fast action. I got straight to work.

After purchasing suitable cloth and straw from the Gallery Auction House, I roughly crafted them into a human shape.

The highlight was the sparrow corpses. While harvesting earlier, I had caught a few with my bare hands.Read this novel at n​ovelping.com for the best experience.

The feeling of a sparrow popping in my hand wasn’t great, but I had to endure it for now.

Chulpuk- chulpuk-

Lastly, I finely ground up (?) the dead sparrows and smeared them onto the scarecrow. It would stink, but it was fine.

As long as I could ward off those damn sparrows, I could tolerate a little stench.

"Jjaek-jjaek-jjaek! Jjaek-jjaek!"

"Jjaaaek! Jjaek-jjaek-jjaek!"

"These little bastards..."

It didn’t work at all. If anything, they just laughed at it.

Their reaction implied: You think a pathetic threat like that can stop us? Despair washed over me.

Ultimately, unless Tyranno returned, there was no way to stop those sparrows.

Frustrating as it was, nothing could be done. It wasn’t entirely unexpected, so I just had to keep brainstorming.

"By the way, Master. When are we going on another exploration?"

"We’ll probably stay here for a while. We also need to visit the Hobgoblin Village."

I said while glancing back at Bbareumbo hanging off my back. I recalled what Vanir had said before.

The Colossus was an exception among exceptions, but the animals inhabiting the vicinity of the World Tree were all strong like Bbareumbo.

Because creatures as strong as Bbareumbo roamed everywhere, the ecological balance was maintained.

"And you and the others are going to train intensely. You know why, right?"

"..."

Lackey nodded silently at my words. He must have realized it through the recent crisis.

There was a strong tendency to rely on me or Bbareumbo whenever a crisis hit. Therefore, we needed to raise our baseline combat power.

Cain’s case couldn’t be helped, but I intended to elevate Lackey and Ludwig no matter what.

Whether by guzzling World Tree honey like water, trading goods with the mole we visited earlier, or bartering with the Spirit Deer.

’Should we visit the Kangaroo Arena? Saw some pretty decent stuff there.’

The priority was raising Ludwig’s floor.

Although his floor had been steadily rising, he still couldn’t display the level of power he possessed outside the forest.

Helping him unleash his true abilities would make our future journeys much smoother.

’When Ludwig operated on the outside, he was probably an expert even beyond Bbareumbo.’

Of course, that was based on Bbareumbo during our early shelter days.

Currently, Bbareumbo had even mastered mana, becoming exponentially stronger.

After meticulously laying out these plans, I shared them with the group.

The companions had also learned valuable lessons from the fight against the Colossus, accepting the plan without complaint.

[I wish I could manifest my true self even without the Holy Sword.]

"If it’s the Hero, she’d gladly lend it to you. It’s just that I’d feel too guilty asking."

If it was Asella, she’d happily offer: Here’s the Holy Sword! Take it!

The problem was if something went wrong and we couldn’t return the Holy Sword. The symbol of the Hero was the Holy Sword.

If she lost the Holy Sword, her status as the Hero would be severely jeopardized.

Of course, since she saved the Holy Kingdom, the people’s support wouldn’t falter.

’It means foreign nations might use it as a pretext to cause trouble for her.’

The issue lay with foreign powers, not her home country. Asella surely knew this as well.

And because she would gladly hand it over even knowing the risks, I couldn’t bring myself to ask.

"Well, maybe we can find something later? With any luck, we might come across an item similar to the Holy Sword."

[That might indeed be possible.]

Besides, Cain was already strong enough as he was. He pulled his weight plenty.

I spent the day carefully planning. Aside from the sparrows, it was a smooth day.

[Suspiciously...: Here is the blanket I mentioned earlier. Apologies for being late.]

[Wild Grylls: No, it’s fine. I was late on my end too, no worries.]

[Suspiciously...: If you ever need a favor in the future, speak without hesitation. My tribe always fulfills its promises.]

[Wild Grylls: Thank you.]

Timely enough, the sheep wool I sent earlier returned processed into a plush mat and blanket.

Just as he had boasted, the mat and blanket were incredibly soft and fluffy.

’I’ll set this aside for the little ones, and this one...’

I partitioned the mats while keeping a spot for Tyranno in mind, hoping she might return one day.

Wonmo seemed to share the thought, carefully avoiding intruding on what used to be Tyranno’s area.

"Alright, Maengkkongi. This is your spot."

"Kkuaeng."

By the way, I also set up a spot for Maengkkongi. The little toad waddled around, unfamiliar with the plush texture.

Then he sprawled out comfortably and closed his eyes. I didn’t know why that plump little body was so ridiculously cute.

And so, each assigned their fluffy sheep wool, pitch-black night descended. I went through Internal Energy Regulation to conclude the day.

Just in case I might lose the feel of Unity of Self and Object, I made sure to practice at least once a day.

’It’s about time I learned the next passage.’

I pushed that off for later. My body hadn’t fully recovered yet.

Feeling the plush touch of the blanket given by Suspiciously..., I drifted off to sleep.

Time passed, and around the time the morning sun rose.

Pababak! Pabak!

Something was scratching frantically at the shelter—or more precisely, the front door of our house.

Startled by the sound, I rushed to look outside.

"Pbeeeek!"

"...Huh?"

For some unknown reason, a battle-scarred Tyranno covered in scratches was crying right in front of our house.

—ROAAAAAR!!!

And the roaring roar of a dragon echoing from afar came along as a bonus.